In its report, prepared by Entrans Policy Research Group and covering 2003 to 2012, MAC said the aggregate total also included corporate income taxes and personal income taxes paid out by employees of the mining sector.

While payments may naturally have some fluctuation year to year on the cycles of business, sometimes significantly, the data showed overall that government contributions were “huge” and the trend over the decade had been positive.

However, the report said, the most recent data for 2012 did show an overall year-over-year decline in mining payments to about $6.6 billion from approximately $8.3 billion in 2011.

EPRG attributed the fall to the challenging economy and price declines that had been seen across much of mining.

At the time, though, the group said the $6.6 billion figure was still well above the $4.1 billion paid by industry in 2003.

The payment peak was in 2008, at $10.5 billion, before the recession took hold and 2009’s total fell dramatically to $4.9 billion.

As the mining industry has recovered, payments have risen parallel to that and reached $8.3 billion in 2011.

EPRG noted that there was a decrease in royalties and taxes of about $820 million last year versus 2011 and at the same time corporate income taxes were halved from $2.4 billion in 2011 to $1.2 billion.

“Interestingly, however, 2012 saw a significant increase in the sector's personal income taxes in 2012: $290 million, or 15%,” the report said.

“This increase is a result of the mining industry's role as a major high-paying employer in Canada.

“In 2012, the sector experienced strong employment growth of approximately 6700 new mining jobs and equally robust annual earnings increases.”

MAC president and chief executive officer Pierre Gratton said the annual report was important because it served to quantify one of the mining industry's many significant economic contributions to Canadians nationally and regionally.

“The royalties, taxes and other payments made to governments by the industry ultimately go towards supporting critical government services like health care, education and the building of infrastructure," he said.

“This impressive amount of more than $70 billion over the past decade also underscores the importance of mining in Canada as both a major employer across the country and significant contributor to the Canadian economy.”

According to statistics from Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian mining industry had more than 418,000 workers last year, or one in every 41 Canadian jobs.

Additionally, NRC said, the sector’s workers earned the highest wages and salaries of all industrial sectors in Canada.

The average pay for a worker in mining per week last year was $1599.